A Strange Vessel
by ArwenLalaith
Summary: Emily remembers Candle Cove. Candle Cove remembers Emily. She thought she'd put it behind her a long time ago...but Candle Cove never forgets. She's about to learn that once you're a part of the crew, you're part of the crew forever.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: This was created for the CM Big Bang. I've posted the entire thing on AO3, so if you can't wait to read it all - and see the accompanying artwork by Daze Venture, head on over there. ****Second, if you've seen the first season of Channel Zero, please don't spoil anything for those that haven't. I've borrowed elements from the show and the creepypasta that inspired it.**

* * *

Emily was ripped from the depths of sleep in the early hours of the morning by screaming. Derek was already halfway out of bed, reaching for his gun safe. She yawned, scrubbing a hand through her sleep-dishevelled hair. "Henry's probably just having a nightmare," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. JJ had warned them that he'd been waking up screaming with regularity lately, so she wasn't overly concerned.

Derek's expression was dubious, a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. His silent doubts were quickly punctuated by a second, more urgent scream.

Both adults flew out of bed and into the bedroom down the hall where the children were supposed to be asleep.

Emily had seen a lot of gore in her life, but the scene before her turned her stomach and she clapped a hand to her mouth to keep a startled cry from emitting.

In the middle of the innocence of her once-nursery, her daughter stood, rusty hook in hand, over the prone form of her best friend, blood decorating the carpet.

* * *

Emily paced back and forth, back and forth. "How could this have happened?" she asked the waiting room, but spoke only to Derek. "Where would she even _get _a hook?"

"Calm down, Em," he said gently, coming up behind her and resting his hands on her shoulders. "You're going to make yourself sick stressing out over this."

"She could have killed him!" she exploded, whirling around. "Why would she do that!?"

"Emily..." he said softly at the same time someone shouted her name across the room.

"JJ!" Emily gasped, turning towards her best friend, ready to apologize profusely for her daughter's strange actions. "I'm so..."

But before she could get the words out, JJ lashed out and slapped her.

Emily let out a gasp of surprise and stumbled back just in time to avoid a second blow. In the next instant, Derek was in between them and Will was struggling to hold back an enraged JJ.

"Your crazy daughter tried to kill my son!" she shrieked.

"It was an accident!" Emily insisted. "You _know _she'd never hurt anyone, let alone Henry!"

But JJ didn't want to hear it. "Keep her away from him!"

* * *

In the weeks leading up to the attack on Henry, Maren had been acting oddly.

It started out innocently enough – she had started talking to an imaginary friend. _Janice_ kept her company, so they saw no reason to be concerned. Until they started asking questions about _Janice_, like what she looked like and where she'd come from and Maren replied, "_Janice _said it's a secret." Maren never kept anything a secret from them, every thought she had, everything she did, she told her parents, as they'd always encouraged her that she could tell them everything. Her sudden obsession with secrecy was alarmingly all-consuming.

Playing with _Janice_ slowly turned into an inexplicable obsession with pirates. She never played pirates with anyone but _Janice_ and got angry if anyone tried. The obsession with pirates had migrated from her to Henry and Michael, to Jack, to Kai, even though she never indulged anyone's desire to be involved in her game.

Most of Maren's anger was directed at Emily. Or, rather, _Janice_ was angry at Emily and Maren fed on it and slowly turned a cold shoulder towards her mother where they had once been inseparable. Emily had been distraught by her daughter pulling away from her, but Derek had convinced her it was just normal childhood behaviour – testing boundaries, testing relationships, learning independence. They agreed it was just a phase.

Then one day, Maren was missing several teeth. She hadn't had any loose teeth when she'd been to the dentist a week before. When Derek asked her about it, she confessed that she'd pulled out her own teeth because _Janice _had told her she needed to, so she could feed _The Monster_.

Reid agreed that it was looking a lot like early onset schizophrenia. They'd made an appointment to have her assessed by a psychiatrist.

It had been too late for Henry.


	2. Chapter 2

Derek emerged into the waiting room to find that the rest of the team had joined them, each looking more sombre than the last. Emily was still wringing her hands, unable to take her eyes off JJ who was still seething, but at least silently and without violence.

"How is she?" Hotch asked. From his expression, it was clear that he knew it was bad. He knew how these kinds of cases turned out.

"She's...confused," he said on a sigh. It was as good a word as any. He dropped into the seat beside Emily and twined his fingers with hers. She looked at him questioningly, but he just shook his head. "Have any of you guys heard of _Candle Cove_?"

"The creepy pirate show from the 80's?" Will asked. He shuddered involuntarily at the memory. "I watched every single episode."

"That show used to give me the worst nightmares," JJ spoke for the first time since attacking Emily, still avoiding looking her in the eye – whether from anger or shame, it couldn't be said.

Garcia solemnly nodded her agreement. "Especially that screaming episode," she added with a shudder.

"You saw that one too?" Derek asked, "I thought I dreamed that..."

For Hotch's benefit, Reid explained, "For a brief period in the 80's, a show called _Candle Cove _aired on dead channels, believed to be broadcast by a pirate station. Its creators have never been identified. Oddly, it was only ever seen by children and no one was ever able to record it; anyone over a certain age would only see static on the screen that children were supposedly watching. The show apparently had some kind of mind control over children, as many who watched it later disappeared or committed acts of violence upon others, though no one is certain why."

"Didn't it used to air on the radio in the 50's?" Rossi asked, "But with a different little girl..."

Derek looked over at Emily who had remained oddly silent and saw she'd gone white as a sheet. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Has... Has Maren been watching it?" she stuttered. The number one rule in their household was to never _ever _watch television static. Derek nodded grimly and she felt the pit of her stomach plummet.

"How is that possible if there are no recordings of it?" Hotch asked. "And why would they re-air it if it caused violent actions in viewers?"

"Could they be airing it over the cell network?" Reid asked, without making mention of _who _would be airing it. Or why.

"More importantly, how did Maren even find a broadcast?" Garcia added.

"How did _we _find it?" Morgan replied. "It always found us..." No one had a response to that, at least, one that was in any way comforting.

"Why did it make her hurt Henry?" Emily rasped. She looked like she might be sick.

"It's not her fault," Derek murmured close to her ear. "You know what that show does – it controls kids, makes them do crazy things. You know she wouldn't have done this if she hadn't been watching that show."

"What happens if he dies?" she whispered, voice barely there. "They'll lock her up..."

"They won't," he promised. "We won't let them take our baby girl away." He kissed the back of her hand reassuringly. She looked at him like she'd very much like to believe him.

* * *

Emily gingerly settled into the chair beside Maren's bed. "Hello, Little Mermaid," she murmured in a voice that sounded like screaming. She had Fran's red hair and a love of being in the water, earning herself the nickname.

Maren wouldn't meet her eyes. Or couldn't.

Emily rested a hand on top of hers and attempted a smile, but knew it looked hollow. They both knew things were bad, but Emily pretended anyway, though she couldn't have been sure if it was for her daughter or herself.

There were so many things she wanted to ask, like 'Why did you do this?' and 'What's _Janice _been telling you?' But she just couldn't make herself say them.

Instead, she reached into her purse and pulled out the stuffed mermaid that had been her daughter's companion since birth. Maren snatched it away without saying thank you, but Emily didn't have the heart to reprimand her. Technically, she wasn't even supposed to have it on this ward.

"Do you want me to read to you?" she asked when she could come up with nothing else to say. "I brought _Treasure Island_ because I know..."

"No," Maren interrupted vehemently.

"Maren..." Emily sighed; she had to ask. "Did _Janice _make you do this?"

"No."

"Because you don't have to listen to her – if she wants you to do something bad, you don't have to do it. She's a bad person," Emily insisted. "Please, let me help you."

Maren rolled over, ignoring her.

"I just want to keep you safe, Little Mermaid," she said on the verge of tears, scared for her daughter, for herself.

But Maren said nothing, did nothing, out of reach of her mother.

In the hospital hallway, Emily fell into Derek's arms and sobbed helplessly, knowing in her gut that this was her fault.

* * *

Sleep hadn't come easily for Emily. She doubted it had for Derek either. He had taken the first overnight shift at the hospital and she'd try to rest at home.

She must've fallen asleep at some point because the next thing she knew she was being woken by the jarring ragged roar of TV static in the dead of night.

For a few moments, she kept her eyes closed, trying to pretend this wasn't happening, that she was dreaming. And if this wasn't happening, then her daughter wasn't in nearly as much trouble, even though she knew in her gut what came next.

She opened her eyes to find the room lit by the glow of the TV broadcasting a dead station. She nearly leapt across the room to turn it off, even though she knew it wouldn't. She pressed the button frantically, repeatedly.

Then, there came a presence over her shoulder that she was intimately acquainted with. Next, a tune so hauntingly familiar that she felt it down to her very bones.

Slowly, shakily, she turned around to face him.

"Emily?" Jawbone said, jaw moving out of time and juddering like it was on a rusty hinge. "Where are you going, Emily?" His voice wasn't his own; she knew that voice...

"No!" Emily shouted. "Leave me alone!"

"You have to go _inside_, Emily..."

What followed, Emily didn't know – she lost track of time for the next several minutes. The next thing she was aware of was blood staining the kitchen floor. Her hands were shaking, fingers slippery. She dropped the knife she was holding.

The blood was coming from a series of deep gashes in her arm where she'd carved the words, _SHE'S MINE_.

* * *

_Emily remembered. She remembered when things were different. She remembered Jawbone. That wasn't his real name though. His real name was the Skintaker. She remembered being chased. "I'll wear your skin!" She remembered being scared._


	3. Chapter 3

"_You shouldn't have opened that box, Emily. You shouldn't have opened that box..."_

Late into the night, Emily scrubbed, bleaching the kitchen floor of every trace of blood. She scrubbed until her hands were raw and cracked. Until she couldn't hear the laughter, only the brush against the tiles.

Then, because she feared what would happen if she closed her eyes, she set to work on the blood spattered carpet in her daughter's bedroom. Set to work obliterating any sign of the horrible crime her daughter had committed because a TV show told her to.

In her gut, she knew this was all her fault.

* * *

JJ lead Henry slowly down the hospital hallway, pushing his IV tower along next to him. He was healing well from his surgery and it was looking like he was out of the woods, much to her relief.

As soon as he'd woken from the anaesthesia, he'd been begging to see Maren – he wanted to make sure she was okay, to tell her he wasn't mad at her. Finally, JJ had conceded, in spite of the fear and anger still curdling her stomach.

"Aunty Em!" Henry exclaimed when he caught sight of her sitting outside Maren's room. He sprinted forwards for a hug, nearly ripping the IV out of his arm in the process.

"Hi, buddy," Emily said, attempting to muster a smile as she embraced him. "How are you feeling?"

"Good," he insisted in the easy childhood way of brushing off serious injury, ignorant of Emily's sombre mood. He flashed her a gap-toothed smile where he hadn't been missing a tooth the night before. "The doctor said I'm gonna have a really cool scar!"

"That's great, buddy. Chicks dig scars." She winked, holding up her hand for a high-five. It was clear from his expression he had no idea what that meant, but he liked the way it sounded anyway, returning the high-five enthusiastically.

"How's Maren doing?" JJ asked, not quite meeting Emily's eyes. In the light of day, the slap didn't feel quite so vindicated; Emily was still her best friend, Maren was still a child who hadn't known what she was doing.

Emily's smile in acknowledgement was tight. "She won't tell me. Something has changed her – _really_ changed her. It's that _show_..." She shook her head slowly, in a daze, eyes unfocused.

"What show?" Henry asked, looking between them with interest.

JJ knelt down in front of him to look in his eyes. "Henry, tell me the truth: have you ever watched _Candle Cove_?" She attempted a smile, so as not to frighten him.

His eyes lit up and he nodded eagerly. "You have to go _inside_," he echoed, staring as if into Emily's very soul. Emily shuddered, suddenly feeling very cold.

"Henry," JJ said seriously, forcing him to look at her again. "Has the show ever made you want to hurt someone?" He shook his head.

"Has _Janice_ ever talked to you?" Emily pressed.

"Oh, no," he said, shaking his head insistently. "Maren is _special_... They like her the best."

"Who does?" JJ asked, concerned. Her eyes flicked up to Emily's, filled with confusion and alarm.

"The Skintaker," he said cheerfully. "Can I see Maren now?"

Maren's sullen mood instantly brightened when she spotted Henry. She opened up her arms for a hug that Henry eagerly gave with friendly childhood abandon.

"Do you really think that show is causing all this?" JJ whispered to Emily, eyes shining with fear she was trying hard to hide.

"You watched the show..." Emily said pointedly. "Don't you remember what it was like?"

"It was creepy," she said. "But...I don't know." She shrugged, unsure. "What do you mean?"

Emily sank her teeth into her bottom lip. "Your sister..." she said gently. "Are you sure _Candle Cove_ didn't push her to do what she did?"

JJ's brow furrowed as she rifled through her memory, a look of realization slowly dawning on her face. "You think...?"

Emily nodded darkly. "I_ know _she did."

"But why has it come back? Why Maren? Why Henry?" She wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

"It's because of me..." Before she had the chance to explain, the nurse on duty was tapping her watch pointedly.

Maren grinned down at the fresh tooth in her palm.

* * *

_Emily remembered. She remembered when things were different. She remembered Pirate Percy. He was her friend, her only friend. He was always afraid because he knew, he knew what was waiting in Bravery Cave...he'd been there before. She had never been there. He made her go inside. She remembered being scared._

* * *

Emily slept fitfully in the waiting room outside Maren's ward, but it was more restful with Maren nearby, even if every time she turned her back on the TV, she could swear she felt _him _watching her, only to turn back to find it still on the twenty-four hour news channel.

At midnight exactly, the phone rang. A voice sing-songed, "_Emilyyyy_... Why did you run, Emily? Why did you leave us?"

Heart racing, she hung up the phone, voice sticking in her throat.

It rang again. "Don't you like us anymore?" the same voice trilled. "We like _youuuuu_..."

"Leave me alone," she demanded with as much confidence as she could muster, in spite of the nausea roiling her stomach. Then she hung up.

Another ring. "_Emily_..." The voice was stern now. "We don't like mutineers, Emily."

She hung up.

Another ring. "You're really starting to make us mad now, Emily!"

"Stop it!" Emily shouted. "Just stop it!" She hung up.

Another ring. She didn't give the voice a chance. "Leave me alone!"

"Emily!?" Derek's voice interrupted, somewhere between confused and panicked.

"Derek?" Emily stammered, heart hammering in her throat. "What's wrong?"

"Maren's here."

"What?" she asked, voice leaping several octaves in alarm. "It sounded like you said Maren is there..."

"She is," he insisted. "Where are you?"

"I'm still at the hospital. How the hell did she get there? It's over ten miles!" She was out of her seat, pacing.

"She said she paid _The __Monster_to go through the door to _Candle Cove_..." He paused, panting. She could hear the panic in his voice. "Em, I'm really worried about her..."

Emily shut her eyes tightly, sighed heavily. "I think I know how to fix this..." she rasped, the words like thorns.

"Fix this?" he repeated. "What is 'this'?"

"There's no time to explain," she insisted. "Bring her back to the hospital, make up something as to how she escaped. I'm going...somewhere."

"Where are you going, Em?" he asked, his voice betraying his concern.

"Just somewhere. You have to trust me. Please."

"I trust you, Em. With my life, with Maren's." _'It's your own I'm concerned with...' _he didn't add, but it hung in the air between them anyway.

"I love you," she said on a shaky breath.

"Emily," he said, not quite warningly, but just as tremulous.

"I love you." Then she hung up.

The phone rang a final time. When she answered, it was a child's laughter.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I'm looking for someone to make some art for a new story I'm working on! I think it will be a really fun project and in exchange I'll write you a fic of your choosing. Please message me if you're interested in this project!**

* * *

Emily drove.

At first, she didn't know where she was going, just driving, headed out into the night with the glow of headlights leading the way.

Part of her knew she'd never be back.

* * *

"Have you heard from Emily?" Derek asked Reid, getting more and more frantic with each call he made. She was gone when he'd dropped Maren back at the hospital and she wasn't answering his calls. No one had seen or heard from her since he spoke with her, nearly five hours ago.

"Morgan, what's going on?" Reid asked, the slowly unravelling panic in his friend's voice clear as day.

"They've put Maren on lock-down and I can't reach Emily. She's gone... I spoke to her on the phone and she was acting really odd, saying things about how she could 'fix things' and she had to go 'somewhere'. She wasn't making sense. I'm really concerned..."

Reid let out a heavy sigh that rattled down the phone line. "Do you believe what she said – about _Candle Cove_ causing Maren's odd behaviour?"

If Derek was confused by the sudden change in subject, he didn't say so. "You weren't around back then, kid, you don't know what it was like... _Candle Cove _changed people who watched it."

"It was a TV show..." Reid insisted. "It's possible a mass delusion was at work, but..."

"It wasn't _just a show_," Derek insisted. "If you don't believe me, come talk to Maren – it has a hold on her and it's going to get her locked up for life..."

* * *

By the time Emily realized where she was headed, it was nearing 5AM and she'd driven through the night. Too early to be knocking on someone's door and demanding to be let in, but she'd burn the world down for her daughter, so she wasn't about to let social niceties stop her.

She wasn't sure how she knew the address to somewhere she'd never been, someone she'd never met, but she turned up there nonetheless.

The house was decrepit – it appeared that no one had lived there for quite some time. When she got out of the car, she could swear she heard the haunting _Candle Cove _theme floating from the house, but as soon as she tried to listen, it was gone.

The house was dark and empty.

* * *

_Emily remembered. She remembered when things were different. She remembered Bravery Cave. You had to go inside. You had to play the game. She remembered that she didn't know how to play. She remembered being scared._

* * *

She was scared now, in spite of herself. Maybe because part of her knew what was going to happen.

The only sign of life was the sound of mice scurrying in the walls. The layer of dust that covered every surface was untouched. The faint music came again, from everywhere and nowhere. Louder now.

In the living room, there was an old dial TV – the only item not covered by the thick layer of dust. It was still warm, as if it had been turned on recently.

Hanging macabrely from the ceiling were puppets – Pirate Percy, Horace Horrible, all the inhabitants of _Candle Cove –_ so incredibly realistic and accurate that she could have sworn they were the real ones. In one corner, a foam rendition of the Laughingstock sat leaning to one side, its eyes stared ominously at her, seeming to follow her every move.

As she stared at the props, the TV turned on and she could feel the Skintaker staring at her, smiling in his menacing way. She turned the dial a few times to make him go away, to no avail. He started laughing. She reached to unplug it, but it already was. The laughter got louder.

"I'll be seeing you soon, Emily," he crowed, "I'll be seeing you _soon_..."

* * *

The hospital allowed Reid to speak to Maren. But she kept insisting that wasn't her name. "If you aren't Maren, who are you?" Reid asked patiently.

Maren glared at him. "You wouldn't know," she said snidely.

"Are you from _Candle Cove_?" he pressed, tone mildly interested – his interrogation voice.

"You've never been there...or you'd know," she said coldly. "_Emily _would know."

"You mean your mother?" Reid asked.

"Emily's been to _Candle Cove_," she sing-songed, "And she's got to go home..."

"Back to your house?"

Maren shook her head slowly, grinning with too many teeth. "Emily, Emily, ran away...she's going home, it's time to play," she sang. Then, her expression darkened with the suddenness of a trap springing. "And she's _never_ coming back."

* * *

Emily called her mother. "Do you remember the 80's?" she asked when Elizabeth's sleepy voice answered.

"Emily?" Elizabeth said around a yawn. "What's going on?"

"Do you remember _Candle Cove_?"

"Emily, what are you talking about? Do you know what time it is?"

"Do you remember a girl named _Janice_?" she pressed. "It's important."

Elizabeth yawned again. "No, I don't remember anyone named _Janice_."

"Think back," Emily insisted, "In the 80's..."

"Emily," her mother said, obviously losing patience, "What is this about?"

"I did something bad," Emily said, voice barely a whisper. "Now Maren's in trouble and it's all my fault."

At the mention of her granddaughter, Elizabeth seemed to awaken. "What happened to Maren? Is she alright?"

"No," Emily rasped. "But she will be..."

"Emily..." Elizabeth said warningly, warily.

"I'm sorry," she replied. "I'm sorry I stole your daughter away and took her place. I'm sorry you can't remember her. I'm sorry I can't bring her back. I just couldn't stay there – I couldn't live in fear anymore, so I took her to _Candle Cove _so I could come here."

"Emily, you're not making sense! You're my daughter – you've always been my daughter."

Emily exhaled a shaky breath. "I have to go. Take care of Maren; don't let her watch _Candle Cove_, it isn't safe. I'm sorry..."

"Emily? Emily!" Elizabeth's voice got louder and more urgent as she hung up.

* * *

Emily drove.

At first, she didn't know where she was going, just driving, headed out into the night with the glow of headlights leading the way.

Part of her knew she'd never be back.

The radio turned on by itself, playing a loud static. Echoes of the Big Bang that would continue long after she was gone.

"Emily..." a voice broke through the static. "I saw you, Emily. I saw you, but you couldn't see me," it sing-songed.

"It's time to come home, Emily," a new voice said. "You can't run anymore."

"Emily, Emily, ran away...please come home, it's time to play," a third voice sang.

"You have to go _inside_..." the three voices chorused. "Your new friend is waiting."

The laughter started then. From everywhere and nowhere. From the radio. From inside her head. Louder and louder.

Emily pulled over to the side of the road. It was time to stop running. It was time to come home.

* * *

Henry climbed out of his hospital bed. He grabbed the scalpel hidden under his mattress. He didn't know how it got there or why – only that it was time.

The others joined him.

Together, they cornered a nurse. Together, they stabbed her. Over and over and over. They had to.

It was time for _Candle Cove_...


	5. Chapter 5

There was some debate over whether to try the children who had killed the nurse. Whether they'd planned it, whether they even _could _plan something like that. Whether they were sane...

Normal children didn't wake up one day and stab a nurse to death...

But in the end, Will and JJ agreed they would commit Henry. _They _knew why he'd done it – they knew _Candle Cove_ was responsible. They had to keep him safe.

When the nurses showed him to his room for the next ten years, Maren greeted him with glee.

He was just in time for _Candle Cove_.

* * *

_Emily remembered. She remembered when things were different. She remembered coming to Candle Cove. If she'd had a life before it, she couldn't remember._

_She came to Candle Cove on her fifth birthday._

_At least, they told her it was her birthday..._

_Her first memory is of the song, the haunting high-pitched tune of a flute playing a sea shanty. It came from everywhere and nowhere at all once. It was the first thing she heard as she gained consciousness._

_Then came the waves, the groaning of wooden boards upon a churning sea._

_She had never been to the ocean, never been on board a ship._

_She was afraid to open her eyes. She was afraid._

_She started to cry, thick heaving sobs that wracked her entire body. She wanted her mommy. She wasn't sure she'd ever had a mommy. She was all alone._

_Then she wasn't alone. Someone was prodding her._

"_She's waking up," an unfamiliar voice said, a kind of quivering excitement in his voice._

"_Is she d-dangerous?" another voice asked, this one sounding fearful._

"_Not as dangerous as _Him_..." the first voice said with a haunting laugh._

_Emily found the courage to open her eyes, not sure who _He _was but frightened nonetheless. __A cracked porcelain face with a shock of wiry red hair was peering down at her. "Happy Birthday!" the face crowed._

"_It's not my birthday," Emily whispered, backing away from the grotesque puppet who seemed to move completely independent from any sort of puppeteer._

"_Of course it is, silly," he said. "You just got here!"_

"_We have a _surprise_ for you..." the first voice trilled, his big moustache moving up and down as he spoke, grinning a monstrous grin that showed entirely too many teeth. "We're going to play a game."_

"_I don't want to play," Emily said slowly, crawling backwards from the two Eldritch beings she'd awoken to. "I don't know how to play." Fat tears slid down her cheeks._

"_Your new friend is waiting..." they chorused, approaching closer and closer, backing her into a corner._

"_I don't want a new friend," Emily sobbed. "You're not my friends! I want to go home! I want my mommy!"_

"_You don't have a home..." the moustached puppet informed her._

"This_ is your home..." the porcelain puppet said._

_The ship teetered dangerously as it approached a shore of craggy rocks. "It's Bravery Cave..." the ship spoke, then laughed. "You have to go _inside_..." It laughed some more._

"_No!" Emily shrieked, "I'm not going! I don't want to go! I want to go home!"_

_The two pirates wrapped their hands around her arms and lead her into the cave._

_Emily screamed._

* * *

_On her sixth birthday, her new friends threw her a party. She'd been in Candle Cove a whole year – they had to celebrate._

_Time passed differently in Candle Cove. Eons had passed. No time had passed at all._

_All she knew was what they told her. She'd been here a year. She didn't look any older. She didn't feel any older. She was six years old and as old as time itself._

_She wasn't scared anymore. Or, rather, she'd gotten used to being scared._

_They threw her a party._

_She didn't want to go. They made her go anyway._

_It was her birthday._

_There was no cake, no balloons. There was a present._

_It was a wooden treasure chest. No wrapping or bows. She didn't want to open it._

"_Open it!" Pirate Percy said. "You have to open it!"_

"_Your new friend is waiting..." Horace Horrible said with glee._

_They both watched her with expectant trepidation that bordered on horrified anticipation – they knew what was about to happen._

_Emily did not know. She opened the chest._

_It wasn't a present. It wasn't a friend._

_It was the Skintaker._

_He chased her, cackling, "You shouldn't have opened that box, Emily! You shouldn't have opened that box!"_

_Emily screamed._

* * *

_On her seventh birthday, the listeners came._

_They never helped, no matter how many times she begged and cried. Sometimes, she heard them laughing._

* * *

_On her tenth birthday, she left Candle Cove._

_She'd wished on every star, every night, to get away, certain that anywhere was better than where she was. She'd lie awake at night and count the stars, wondering how many worlds were out there and if somewhere out there she had a family, had a mommy, who wondered where she'd gone and whether she was okay. She wondered if anyone cared that she was gone, that she was afraid._

_One day, when she was all alone, a voice asked, "Why are you crying?" It was a new voice – a stranger, a watcher. The listeners had come and gone, replaced by watchers who could see her but never helped. "Aren't you having a happy birthday?"_

_Somewhere, the Skintaker was waiting for her. She was getting old, too old..._

_Emily crawled across the sand to press a hand to the invisible wall that kept her trapped. The little girl who watched did the same. "I'm scared... I want to go home," Emily sobbed. "I don't like Candle Cove."_

_In the background, a voice called out, "Janice, who are you talking to? Turn off that TV and wash up for dinner."_

_The girl glanced behind her and heaved a wistful sigh. "I like Candle Cove," she said eagerly. She smiled._

_Emily made one more wish._

_She wasn't scared anymore._


	6. Chapter 6

_Emily remembered. She remembered when things were different. She remembered having a husband and a daughter. A life. She loved them. She left them. She left them because she loved them. To save them. She had to go inside. She had to play the game. She didn't know how to play. She remembered being scared..._

She'd been wrong. There _were _puppeteers.

They'd found her. They'd brought her back to _Candle Cove_. Brought her _home_.

_Candle Cove_ had always been her home. Would always be her home.

Everything was just like she remembered, just like she'd never left. Pirate Percy was still afraid. Horace Horrible was still scary. The Laughingstock still laughed.

They threw her a party – it was her birthday, afterall.

There was no cake, no balloons. Only old friends. And a present.

The only thing that was different was her.

She was too old.

* * *

Derek visited Maren every week. She never seemed concerned that she was locked up, never asked when she could come home. He'd long ago stopped hoping that _Candle Cove_ was just a phase – it was clear now it had its hooks in her (no pun intended).

She and Henry were with the other children in the TV room when he arrived. He knocked on the door frame to alert the children to his presence. No one turned to look. The TV blared the roar of static. The children were all laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked.

Maren whipped her head around at his voice. "Daddy!" she cried, running over to give him a hug. She didn't ask where Emily was – she never asked.

"Mommy is in _Candle Cove,_" Maren merrily informed him.

Derek felt his blood turn to ice. "What's she doing there?" he asked warily.

"The Skintaker is chasing her."

Onscreen, he saw only static. But Emily saw him – she screamed his name and pounded her fists against the screen.

The children laughed again.

"The Skintaker is going to make her into a coat," Maren said happily, "So she can never leave again."


End file.
